Comparison

Chess.com vs Chessplode

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Chess.com

Engage in online and offline chess matches with millions of players worldwide. Improve your skills through interactive lessons, over 500,000 puzzles, and powerful AI opponents. Compete in tournaments and explore various chess variants.

Highlights
  • Online multiplayer chess
  • Offline play against AI
  • Extensive puzzle library
  • Interactive chess lessons
  • Tournament participation
  • Chess variants
  • Game analysis
Features
Read full description

Play chess lessons online with over 265 million players from around the world! Chess is known as the best strategy board game in the world! Enjoy unlimited 3D offline pocket chess games and improve your chess rating with 500,000+ puzzles, more than 20 million chess games a day, lessons, and over 100 powerful bot opponents. Unlock your inner chess master today! PLAY CHESS ONLINE: - 2 Player online chess mode is entirely free to enjoy with your friends. - Join tournaments with players online or friends and become a master. - Play games in real-time from one minute per game to 30 minutes or longer with friends. - Review your strategy and game lessons and lay out daily correspondence in online chess. - Play exciting chess variants in our app: chess960 (Fischer-Random), blitz chess, puzzle rush, bullet chess, puzzle battle, or blindfold. CHESS PUZZLES: - Enjoy 500,000 + unique puzzles. - Rated mode automatically adjusts to your skill level to help you improve. - Race the clock with a timer to beat your high score in Puzzle Rush. - Practice puzzles with specific themes in this strategy board game (checkmate in 1, in 2, in 3, blindfold, endgames, fork, skewer, sacrifice, timer, etc.) CHESS LESSONS: - Hundreds of quality chess lessons and online videos made by masters (Learn and practice your skills with chess problems) - Interactive puzzles tutorials with tips and game recommendations. - Learn all the chess rules and strategies in a step-by-step lesson plan (opening, endgame...) CHESS COACHING: - Learn from helpful and immersive visual chess coach lessons. - Review your games with the coach and learn the strategy of the board game for every move. - Play games with the coach, who will guide you through the fundamentals move by move and provide helpful hints as you play. PLAY CHESS ONLINE AGAINST THE COMPUTER: - Choose the level of computer opponent you want to play and set a timer. - Analyze your chess games offline and learn to see where you went wrong and how you can improve. CHESS COMMUNITY: - Join a community of more than 200M online chess players. Find friends! - More than 20M games played each day. - Compete to get your own rating and try to join the best player online chess leaderboards against other players. - Watch the most popular superstars: Hikaru, GothamChess, or Magnus! ... and MUCH MORE: - Play chess games offline against the computer and the clock with a timer. - Articles by the best coaches and masters. - Explore openings like Queen´s Gambit or Sicilian Defense. - Challenge and play with your friends in an online chess game. - Choose from 20+ board themes and 3D pieces. - Get in-depth performance stats about your games, puzzles, and lessons. Playing pocket chess online has never been so easy! Chess.com is the place to play chess games online with your friends and other players! Share your suggestions and comments. Our support team is happy to help you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! ABOUT CHESS.COM: Chess.com was created by chess players and people who love chess! Team: http://www.chess.com/about

About

Chessplode

This app offers a unique twist on chess where capturing a piece causes others in the same line and column to explode. It's designed to be fun and accessible, even for those who aren't skilled at traditional chess, offering both single-player and multiplayer modes.

Highlights
  • Exploding pieces on capture
  • Real-time multiplayer battles
  • User-created levels
  • Local multiplayer mode
  • AI opponent practice
  • Customizable color themes
Features
Read full description

Chessplode is modern chess for everyone, it makes chess fun even if you're bad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, one simply move... can change all game. -- THE MODERN RULE -- Chessplode is pretty much like chess with a really BIG twist... - CAPTURE a piece and everything in the same LINE and COLUMN will EXPLODE... - But if a KING is in that LINE or COLUMN it will be a really *boring* chess capture (no explosions) -- THINK DIFF... *DISTINCT* -- This rule is pretty tricky, in regular chess you need to defend your KING, but in Chessplode it can save your pieces. Remember, you can't capture some pieces because you could get check. Sometimes you will checkmate capturing a piece that explodes. And other you will be afraid of having several pieces in the same line or column...(POP!) -- FRIENDS (Who love chess) REVIEW -- They find Chessplode a great challenge and love how they need to change the old way of thinking even if they are winning... a bad move and they will run out of pieces. -- FRIENDS (Who *meh* chess) REVIEW -- Chess + Explosions... you got my attention. Some of these friends were casual chess players and others didn't really feel the attraction for chess. Both find Chessplode a really fun game. When they were playing regular chess they were not good, now they are the kings of the hill. -- FEATURES -- * FREE TO PLAY * Realtime chess battles multiplayer with people around the world. * In multiplayer you can send an emoji (to express your feelings) with every move you submit. Instant fun! * Play Levels created for other players, you can find really madness here, but you can undo your move... everyone can make a mistake. * Create your own custom Level and submit it to everyone can play it. Challenge the world! * Try local multiplayer battles with friends in the same device. Head to head! * Practice playing versus Ziri. * A lot of different color themes, play day and night with your favourite colors. Thank you for playing "Chessplode"! I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it ;) Support: Are you having problems? http://twitter.com/juaxma http://twitter.com/chessplode hello@juan.ma Privacy Policy: http://juan.ma/chessplode/privacypolicy/ AppPreview Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/jazzy-frenchy © Juan Manuel Altamirano Argudo / juan.ma

Screenshots

Chess.com4 screens
Chessplode4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Chess.com at 827K against Chessplode's 545. Chess.com also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and chart position (#5 vs unranked). Chessplode's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess.com sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Chessplode sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess.com holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess.com has 827K ratings behind it against 545, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Chess.com's written reviews are positive against 61% of Chessplode's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess.com ships an update weekly, Chessplode every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Chess.com versus Chessplode: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess.comChessplode
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (827K ratings) — better4.5 (545 ratings)
Positive reviews63.9% of reviews — better61.2% of reviews
Number of ratings827K — better545
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#5 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size445 MB86 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess.comJuan Manuel Altamirano Argudo

Customer experience

Chess.com

All ratings827,408 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.5%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews8,373 reviews
Positive63.9%
Neutral5.9%
Negative30.2%

Chessplode

All ratings545 ratings
Positive87.9%
Neutral4.0%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive61.2%
Neutral9.0%
Negative29.9%

User reviews

Chess.com

From 827K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent app for learning and improving chess skills
  • 🎓 Comprehensive lessons, puzzles, and analysis tools
  • 🌍 Large player base for quick matchmaking
  • 📊 Detailed game statistics and progress tracking
  • 💻 Seamless integration between mobile app and website

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent connection issues and game freezes
  • ⏱️ Unreliable and inconsistent game timers
  • 🔒 Lack of transparency around anti-cheating measures
  • 💰 Aggressive paywall for advanced features
  • 🤖 Subpar AI opponents with questionable move choices

Chessplode

From 545 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Quick gameplay
  • 👍 Beautiful and fun game
  • 👍 Fantastic and great fun twist on chess
  • 👍 Lovely little game
  • 👍 Chess with a new challenge

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Won't open or get stuck
  • 🐛 Issues with king movement and checkmate detection
  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🐛 AI issues with thinking and repeating moves
  • 🐛 Overly difficult, even at easy levels

Bugs and requests

Chess.com

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Incorrect move suggestions in game analysis
  • Inability to leave or manage chess clubs within the app
  • Puzzle mode crashing when attempting to reveal the solution
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data
  • Pieces not registering correctly on the board during gameplay

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to customize board and piece themes
  • Option to pause and resume games at a later time
  • Improved game analysis with more detailed explanations
  • Enhanced social features for interacting with other players
  • Offline mode for practicing puzzles and tactics

Chessplode

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Won't open or get stuck on certain screens
  • Issues with king movement and checkmate detection
  • Crashes and freezes, especially when AI is thinking
  • AI issues with thinking and repeating moves

Requested features

9 requests
  • Add local multiplayer mode
  • Add classic chess mode
  • Add more basic puzzles
  • Add ability to go back to previous levels
  • Add option to remove explosions
Show 4 more
  • Add Repetition end-condition
  • Add Resign button
  • Add themed boards
  • Add online levels and multiplayer

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Chess.com

Subscriptions12
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Platinum Membership7 Days trial$6.991 Month
Show 9 more
  • Platinum Membership7 Days trial$10.991 Month
  • Diamond Membership7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Diamond Membership7 Days trial$16.991 Month
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Platinum Membership7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Gold Membership7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Platinum Membership7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Diamond Membership7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • Diamond Membership7 Days trial$119.991 Year
5 purchases

Chessplode

One-time5
  • +100 Undos$0.99
  • Generous Tip$0.99
  • Massive Tip$1.99
Show 2 more
  • INFINITE UNDOS$1.99
  • Amazing Tip$2.99

Questions

Is Chess.com free?
Chess.com is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chessplode free?
Chessplode is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess.com or Chessplode?
Chess.com is rated higher. Chess.com averages 4.8 out of 5 from 827K ratings, while Chessplode averages 4.5 from 545 ratings.
Do Chess.com or Chessplode have ads?
Both Chess.com and Chessplode show ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess.com or Chessplode?
Chess.com ships an update weekly, and Chessplode every 2 weeks. Most recently, Chess.com was updated on September 26, 2026 and Chessplode on September 2, 2026.

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